BACKGROUND: the problem of rehabilitation and improvement of the life quality of women with the postmastectomy syndrome holds an important place in the modern concept of the treatment of breast cancer. AIM: The objective of the present study was to determine the purposefulness of the early application of the available means and methods of physical rehabilitation for the improvement of the life quality in the women presenting with postmastectomy syndrome. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study included 135 women with the postmastectomy syndrome who had undergone radical mastectomy as described by Madden followed by postoperative radiotherapy...

INTRODUCTION: The pathogenic mechanism underlying capsular contracture is still unknown. It is certainly a multifactorial process, resulting from human body reaction, biofilm activation, bacteremic seeding, or silicone exposure. The scope of the present article is to investigate the effect of hypofractionated radiotherapy protocol (2.66 Gy × 16 sessions) both on silicone and polyurethane breast implants. METHODS: Silicone implants and polyurethane underwent irradiation according to a hypofractionated radiotherapy protocol for the treatment of breast cancer...

OBJECTIVES: Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) relates to irradiation of diseased tissue during the surgery within the tumor bed. The reason for this process is based on the fact that the increase in the radiation dose increases local tumor control. It was shown that postoperative fluids obtained from patients after breast cancer conserving surgery, stimulated motility and invasiveness of tumor cells in vitro. The results obtained from TARGIT clinical trial demonstrated that IORT significantly inhibits the stimulatory effect of wound fluids on tumor cells in vitro...

Radiotherapy is an indispensable unit of multidisciplinary treatment of breast cancer. Although the application of modern techniques has led to a significantly reduction in radiation-induced heart disease, it is still recognized as the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among breast cancer survivors. With the growing number of long-term survivors, it is important to understand the cardiovascular risks associated with radiotherapy. Questions exist regarding the existence or not of a safe radiation threshold dose that the heart (or its substructures) can receive and strategies to minimize risk of radiation...

INTRODUCTION: Return to work (RTW) after breast cancer (BC) is still a new field of research. The factors determining shorter sick leave duration of patients with BC have not been clearly identified. The aim of this study was to describe work during BC treatment and to identify factors associated with sick leave duration. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An observational, prospective, multicentre study was conducted among women with operable BC. A logbook was given to all working patients to record sociodemographic and work-related data over a 1-year period...

Objective: Breast and thyroid cancers are commonly encountered malignancies. Increased risk of breast cancer in follow-up period of thyroid cancer or vice versa has been reported. However, they have some associations, synchronous presentation of these tumors is rare. We presented 12 patients diagnosed as breast and thyroid cancer and treated at the same time. Materials and Methods: Mastectomy and thyroidectomy were performed in 19 patients at the same time. 7 patients were excluded because of benign thyroid pathology...

AIMS: Deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) reduces cardiac radiation exposure by creating cardiac-chest wall separation in breast cancer radiotherapy. DIBH requires sustaining chest wall expansion for up to 40 s and involves complex co-ordination of thoraco-abdominal muscles, which may not be intuitive to patients. We investigated the effect of in-advance preparatory DIBH coaching and home practice on cardiac doses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Successive patients from 1 February 2015 to 31 December 2016 with left-sided breast cancer who underwent tangential field radiotherapy utilising the DIBH technique were included...

PURPOSE: To examine local control, disease-free survival (DFS), and toxicity in elderly (≥ 65 years) breast cancer patients treated with hypofractionated radiotherapy (hypo-RT) with or without a boost to the tumor bed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study was conducted on 752 patients treated from April 2009 to February 2017. Patients received 42.4 Gy in 16 daily fractions (2.65 Gy per fraction). A boost was only administered in cases of grade 3 primary tumor and close or positive margins...

OBJECTIVE: Complaints about cognitive dysfunction (CD) reportedly persist in approximately one third of breast cancer patients but the nature of CD and possible risk factors are unknown. METHODS: A cross-sectional, multicenter study was set-up at 9 German oncological rehabilitation centers. Objective cognitive performance was assessed by the NeuroCog FX test, a short computerized screening (duration <30 min) which assesses working memory, alertness, verbal/figural memory and language/executive...

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare and aggressive presentation of invasive breast cancer with a 62% to 68% 5-year survival rate. It is the most lethal form of breast cancer, and early recognition and treatment is important for patient survival. Like non-inflammatory breast cancer, IBC comprises multiple subtypes, with the triple-negative subtype being overrepresented. Although the current multimodality treatment regime of anthracycline- and taxane-based neoadjuvant therapy, surgery, and radiotherapy has improved the outcome of patients with triple-negative IBC, overall survival continues to be worse than in patients with non-inflammatory locally advanced breast cancer...

Radiation-induced coronary heart disease (RICHD) is the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients treated with radiotherapy for breast cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma and other prevalent mediastinal malignancies. The risk of RICHD increases with radiation dose. Exposed patients may present decades after treatment with manifestations ranging from asymptomatic myocardial perfusion defects to ostial, triple-vessel disease and sudden cardiac death. RICHD is insidious, with a long latency and a tendency to remain silent late into the disease course...

BACKGROUND: Endometrial cancer is the sixth most common cancer in women worldwide and most commonly occurs after the menopause (75%) (globocan.iarc.fr). About 319,000 new cases were diagnosed worldwide in 2012. Endometrial cancer is commonly considered as a potentially 'curable cancer,' as approximately 75% of cases are diagnosed before disease has spread outside the uterus (FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) stage I). The overall five-year survival for all stages is about 86%, and, if the cancer is confined to the uterus, the five-year survival rate may increase to 97%...

BACKGROUND: Radiotherapy can often lead to thyroid dysfunction. Some studies demonstrated that treatment of breast cancer by RT can expose thyroid gland to high doses of radiation. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate consideration of thyroid gland as an organ at risk. METHODS: In this systematic review and meta-analysis to select initial studies, a comprehensive search by two independent reviewers was performed. Electronical databases following: Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Elsevier, Embase, ProQuest and Persian databases such as Iranmedex, Magiran, and SID were searched...

OBJECTIVE: To review published nomograms that predict endpoints such as overall survival (OS) or risk of intracranial relapse in patients with brain metastases from solid tumors. METHODS: The methods and results of nomogram studies identified by a systematic search were extracted and compared, stratified by endpoint predicted by the respective nomograms. In particular, validation strategies (external/internal), concordance indices (cut-off 0.75) and comparisons to older models were analyzed...

Purpose Breast cancer surgery is associated with unemployment. Identifying high-risk patients could help inform strategies to promote return to work. We systematically reviewed observational studies to explore factors associated with unemployment after breast cancer surgery. Methods We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO to identify studies that explored risk factors for unemployment after breast cancer surgery. When possible, we pooled estimates of association for all independent variables reported by more than one study...

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the non-inferiority of omitting radiotherapy (RT) after breast-conserving surgery (BCS) for hormone receptor (HR)‒positive T1N0 breast cancer in elderly women. Materials and Methods: From 2004 to 2014, HR-positive T1N0 breast cancer patients aged 50 years or older and receiving BCS were retrieved from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End. Results: 18 database. After propensity score matching between the no-RT and RT groups, univariate and multivariate analyses were performed...

INTRODUCTION: Recently it has been shown that radiation dose enhancement could be achievable in radiotherapy using nanoparticles (NPs). In this study, evaluation was made to determine efficiency of gold-silica shell-core NP in megavoltage irradiation of MCF7 breath cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Gold-silicon oxide shell-core NPs were obtained by conjugation of gold NP with amine or thiol functionalized silica NPs (AuN@SiO2 and AuS@SiO2 ). Cellular uptake and cytotoxicity of NPs were examined by fluorescent microscopy and MTT assay, respectively...

The aim of this study was to investigate the use of 3D optical localization of multiple surface control points for deep inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) guidance in left-breast radiotherapy treatments. Ten left-breast cancer patients underwent whole-breast DIBH radiotherapy controlled by the Real-time Position Management (RPM) system. The reproducibility of the tumor bed (i.e., target) was assessed by the position of implanted clips, acquired through in-room kV imaging. Six to eight passive fiducials were positioned on the patients' thoraco-abdominal surface and localized intrafractionally by means of an infrared 3D optical tracking system...